Marijuana news: Pot possession arrests skyrocket in West Virginia community

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in two states and for medical use in nearly two dozen others, but that hasn't kept some law enforcement officials from taking a hard line against its use and cultivation.

Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher filed this dispatch on the drug war from Hancock County, West Virginia, where arrests for marijuana possession have soared. One drug enforcement agent called the area "ground zero for the drug war" given its location between Pittsburgh and the Midwest.

Fisher examines the reasons for the high arrest rate, which include the view of among some law enforcement officials that marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs. Another factor: federal funding that some officials see as an incentive to push for higher arrest rates.

Grants to states and localities are not contingent on increasing drug arrests, but federal officials acknowledge that many police chiefs and sheriffs believe racking up arrests bolsters their case for money they have come to depend on.

“Every year, you’d say, ‘This is what we did, these are our arrests,’ and you’d get the federal money,” says Art Watson, chief deputy sheriff in Hancock County.

The sheriff’s office uses grant money to fund one of the two deputies it assigns to the drug task force and to pay overtime to officers. Denise O’Donnell, who runs the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance, which administers the Byrne grants, says her agency is examining whether the program “is somehow incentivizing agencies to make more low-level arrests.”

In Washington, recreational marijuana shops are getting ready to open. The Columbian reports on the progress of one shop, Main Street Marijuana, which is expected to open in July.

Products may be hard to come by for the first group of stores.

To date only one marijuana producer, CannaMan Farms, has been licensed in Vancouver. That probably means prices will be a little high to start, but (manager Ramsey) Hamide said the company will do what it can to offset them by offering special deals on glassware or other items.

"It will probably be around $20 to $25 a gram to start," Hamide said. "Then maybe $15 to $20 the first few months and hopefully down to $12 or $15 ongoing. Right now we're trying to get as much stock as we can."